Wells Fargo Short Sale in Jacksonville FL

Heron's Landing Condos are near the corner of Hodges and Beach Blvd.  Gated community with a clubhouse and pool, this has been an excellent investment opportunity with it's proximity to UNF, the beach, and the price.

At $82,000, this 3 bed, 2 bath END UNIT, TOP FLOOR condo is available for a CASH ONLY purchase.

Why Cash Only?  Most lenders and government backed mortgages will not lend money against many condo communities for a number of reasons.  The leading reason for most newer/affordable condo communities:  percentage of investors to primary residents too high.  That's right, if the smart money is in, the government is out....go figure.

These sell fast, so if you have interest, please give our…

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Another Successful Bank of America Short Sale in Jacksonville FL

2 Loans on this one:  1st Bank of America, 2nd Regions Bank

I do not like selling homes with Tenants in the property.  I almost always require that they move out before listing, but occasionally I have to bend a little.

The main reasons I dislike Tenants occupying a home when  short selling:

  • Short sales are difficult & add an additional party into the transaction, one that has no tie to making the sale work, and the difficulty just multiplied.
  • Showings are inconvenient for anyone living in the house.  Tenants do not like being inconvenienced.
  • Houses must maintain model like appearance when selling......remember, your house is in a competition with ALL the other houses on…

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#1 reason for short sales taking so long:  Seller Documents

SPEED!  It's what we want in a short sale, and it's the #1 killer of short sale deals.

After a short sale goes under contract and gets submitted to the bank for processing, we work behind the scenes to keep the buyer's side updated with all the latest and greatest news from the short sale process.  My assistant spends hours a day on just this one task, and is in my opinion, one of the most important tasks in the short sale:  Communication.

As the updates trickle in from the short sale lender, they usually request updated documents or additional documents.  The typical request:

  • Bank statements
  • Pay stubs
  • Arms length addendum
  • Specific terms added to listing agreement or…

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Just the facts:

  • Florida top 5 states for having highest share of mortgage delinquency (reported by LPS)
  • 44% of mortgages in Florida under water (reported by CoreLogic)
  • 44% of mortgaged home owners in Florida = 1,900,000 home owners

Just opinion:

  • That's a lot of people who can't move for a better job, worse job, family illness, etc unless they walk away, short sale, or bankrupt
  • There are entire neighborhoods built within the bubble years where almost everyone is upside down
  • No neighborhood or area of town is excluded despite the residents and local REALTORS insistence that "this neighborhood hasn't been affected by the housing market"
  • Not all those 1.9mm want to move....so they are only underwater for now.
  • The values of…

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CR 210 Short Sale in St Johns County - Stonehurst

More house for the money, great schools, every amenity possible.  These are reasons so many residents of Jacksonville choose to move just a little south to County Road 210 in St Johns County.

This home is currently priced at an aggressive $159,000, and I anticipate it selling quickly.  It does need a little TLC, maybe some new paint, but otherwise this home is ready to move in.

4 bedrooms and 2 baths with an open floorplan and very large kitchen.  The backyard isn't huge, but it is private and has a nice screened in Lanai.

If I were buying this home, I'd probably spend some money on landscaping the backyard to make it a retreat.  A wood pergola and some pavers like the one pictured below would…

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Regions Bank Short Sale Success in Jacksonville Florida

Investor owned Short Sale!

Investors of real estate often get the short end of the stick with lenders, and short sales are no different.  Even though investors buy up all the bank's unwanted foreclosures, lenders tend to have a love hate relationship with them.

This short sale in Palencia was an investor owned property that had to be sold or given back the bank.  The investor decided to attempt and work with the bank to short sale the property.

As with any short sale, the owner should expect to help pay some of the forgiven amount back via a promissory note or cash at closing.  That's just part of short selling today, unless you are truly on your last dime......which very few people are.

…

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Bank United Short Sale Success

This short sale gave the Short Sale Attorney a work out.  We sold it once, and the buyer's got cold feet.  We sold it a second time, and the buyer lost their financing ability after we had the approval.  Third time was the charm!

Bank United is relatively quick at processing a short sale, but they are a dirty player.  As part of their requirement for short sale approval, they required a 1% of the purchase price real estate fee be paid to Green River Realty Group LLC???  Who the hell is that?

Green River Realty Group LLC?  Bank United's contracted robbers?

And guess where that money was paid from......directly from my pocket.  And guess what would happen if I didn't agree..........no short sale.

Is that…

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In 2007 Jacksonville had 7300 licensed real estate agents who were members of the local MLS board.  That's a lot of local Jacksonville REALTORS running around.  Those numbers do not include all the builder and developer agents who were not active as "general real estate agents" as they were just representing the builder or developer.  Therefore, they did not need access to the MLS.  Either way, that's a lot of licensed agents!

Today, there are approximately 1900 less.  According to our local MLS, we have 5400 REALTORS locally.

Annual dues are hitting the mailboxes of those 5400 Jacksonville REALTORS, so I'd bet we have a few less starting in 2012.

Of the 5400, I'd say less than 20% of those are full time agents.  I'm sure there are some stats out…

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Seterus Short Sale Success in Jacksonville FL

Are they IBM?  Are they LBPS?  Are they IBM LBPS?  Are they Seterus?

This mortgage servicer keeps changing their name or creating new arms or something.  Trying to research who they are and who you are dealing with is very difficult in this company.  They've had so many complaints, it seems they just keep creating new entities.  None of that matters.

This was a successful Seterus short sale that just closed.  The process was relatively smooth despite the negative press this servicer is constantly hammered with.  It took about 90 days to get the full approval, but that was mostly due to some major repair items that were discovered during inspections.

The new owner of this property was very savvy. …

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Aurora Short Sale Success

HAFA Short Sale eligibility helped this Aurora short sale get approved quickly.  Like many short sales, this one was sold originally to an impatient buyer who just couldn't wait another week for the bank approval, but was then sold to a buyer who received the approval within weeks of contract.  Again, HAFA helped.

I can't tell you how many times that same scenario has happened in 2011.  To counter that, we've started requiring a longer short sale timeline for approval in the contract.  Too often I get contracts with a 30 day timeline for the bank to approve the sale......that's just a waste of 30 days.  80 - 90 days is more realistic, and often the buyers will still need to extend another 20 days.  That's just part of…

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